1. Field of the Invention
The present relates generally to vertical blinds and more particularly to a unitary, one-piece vane carrier therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vanes of vertical blinds are usually supported by and suspended from members commonly referred to as carriers. The carriers include means interconnecting them to limit the distance by which they may be separated; such means are commonly referred to as spacers or spacer links. The carriers also include means for mounting drive means for rotating the vanes and at least one of the carriers in the blind includes means by which that carrier may be moved along the track or traversed. In carriers of the type which include gearing driven by a rod extending through the carrier, such as those disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,996,988 and 3,343,588, it is important that the width of the carrier be small so that the vanes may be compactly bunched or stacked. It is also important that such carriers be constructed so that they slide smoothly along the track for the blinds without binding, permit smooth rotation of the vanes, and so that the carriers may easily be mounted in the track and interconnected, and disengaged and removed. The prior art carriers are particularly burdensome when interconnecting and disengaging the spacers and the carriers; the prior art carriers also tend to bind during traversing. Thus, prior art carriers have not been completely satisfactory and additionally they are complex, and are expensive and difficult to manufacture and assemble.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,588, discloses an arrangement of two levels of carriers which alternate in supporting the vanes for reducing the spacing between the vanes when the vanes are bunched. The spacers and carriers are separate pieces and the spacers are secured to the carriers in the slot through which the spacer of an adjacently interconnected carrier extends which make the carriers prone to binding during traversing. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,988, the spacers and carriers are also separate pieces, similarly making the carriers prone to binding. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,635,686 and 2,790,492 disclose spacers which do not include a carrier body and are not adaptable to include therein gearing for rotating the vanes. The spacers disclosed in these latter two patents are also susceptible to binding since the spacers must be rocked to rotate the vanes, and the vanes are not rotatable in any traverse location of the spacers.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks and disadvantages of the prior art and provides a new and improved carrier which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture and assemble, is compact, smoothly traversable essentially without binding, permits smooth rotation of the vanes and permits easy mounting, interconnection and disengagement of the carriers.